Eight Ways AI Will Transform Sales Strategies in 2018

One of the big trends in information technology is the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) just about everywhere. Industry analysts believe that next great technological revolution is now here, assisted by machine learning and cognitive learning applications we didn’t have only a couple of years ago. In sales, more and more businesses are embracing AI to quickly reach and exceed their goals. Gone are the days of weary traveling sales reps and sales teams guessing about the quality of leads. With the help of AI, sales reps can identify patterns in the sales flow so they can better prioritize actions and spend their time more effectively. This eWEEK slide show uses industry information that Salesforce Sales Cloud is using in its daily routine.

A sales rep can only be as productive as the time spent selling. AI can free up more time for sales reps by automating tedious tasks, including activity logging and creating new contacts.

With AI, a sales rep’s inbox can automatically prioritize emails so he or she can quickly respond to emails that need attention first. AI can also offer suggestions about what actions should be taken next.

AI identifies patterns to determine which leads are most likely to be converted into a deal. Everything from the geography, size of a company and titles to engagement, such as signing up for a trial or downloading a white paper, are details that can indicate a quality lead.

Not only can AI classify what a good deal or account looks like, but it can also predict which solutions and discounts to offer customers based on previous successes.

AI can help sales teams shorten the deal life cycle, or time from quote-to-cash, freeing up time to win more deals. By analyzing past interactions with clients, AI enables sales reps to rapidly identify clusters and patterns in the information, including similarities between customers, past purchasing behavior, credit checks and other common threads.

By analyzing millions of data points in a company’s opportunity history, AI can predict which deals are at risk and how likely the deal is to close. Once those predictions are created, sales managers know where to focus their reps and teams, plus where they can make a difference by pulling at-risk deals across the line.

AI can read previous interactions with the billing system and analyze data gathered from current clients, determining which discounts or other incentives to apply—saving salespeople hours of time.   

AI eliminates many human-machine interactions altogether. So while AI is busy identifying leads, salespeople can focus on applying the human touch.